INTO ETERNITY

07/11/2015

Screening of the films Into Eternity (Michael Madsen, 2010)
and DemocraCity (Mark Clare, 2011), followed by an after screening talk with the artist Mark Clare.

Institut Finlandais, 7.11 at 17

In conjunction with the exhibition What if we got it wrong? at the Irish Cultural Centre, the Finnish Institute screens Michael Madsen’s critically acclaimed documentary Into Eternity followed by the short film DemocraCity by the Irish artist Mark Clare. Both films deal with the construction of the Onkalo waste repository at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland.

The films explore the question of building a site so that it could survive undisturbed for 100,000 years, even though no structure in human history has stayed standing for such a long period.

Once the repository waste has been deposited and is full, the facility is to be sealed off and never opened again. Or so we hope, but can we ensure that? And how is it possible to warn our descendants of the deadly waste we left behind? How do we prevent them from thinking they have found the Giza pyramids of our time, mystical burial grounds, hidden treasures? Which languages and signs will they understand? And if they understand, will they respect our instructions?